Button processing machine



p 1941- 1.. T. FOSTER EI'AL 2,254,479

BUTTON PROCESS ING MACHINE Filed March 25, v194:1 3 Sheets-Sheet l Sept. 2, 1941 L. T. FOSTER ET AL r 2,254,479

BUTTON PROCESSING MACHINE Filed March.25, 1941 Y 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 m M Ma W. Rack .23. P

'UWgiEi Sept. 2, 1941.

L. T. FOSTER ETAL BUTTON PROCESSING MACHINE Filed March 25, 1941 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 \nvenfim .Leshe W551i? Max W. Ru

Patented Sept. 2, 1941 r relics BUTTON PROCESSING MACHINE Leslie '1. Foster and Max W. Beck, Muskegon,

Mich, assignors to George Morrell Corporation, Muskegon, Mich, a corporation of Michigan 10 Claims.

lhe present invention is concerned with finishing the holes in buttons, and relates to a button punch mechanism by means of which a thin rib or fin of the button material positioned transversely in each of the holes of a button is punched out so as to clear the holes and make them smooth and in proper condition for the passage of fastenings, such as thread, staples or other fastening means which may be used to se-' cure the buttons to the garments on which they are used.

In the production of buttons by a molding process the blanks are operated upon from opposite sides by punches or dies to provide the holes and the punches meet between opposite ends of the holes. This leaves a thin layer of the material between the punches which must be removed to provide the proper clean cut holes.

With our invention a quantity of the buttons in such stage of the manufacturing process may be placed in the hopper of the machine, taken one at a time from such quantity of buttons and in succession one after the other moved to a position where they may be operated upon so as to punch the rib or partition out of the holes and thereafter the completely finished button delivered from the machine. It is the primary object and purpose of the present invention to provide a practical working and large quantity production machine which will do this finishing operation with respect to the holes through the buttons, which machine is sure and accurate in operation and by means of which the cost of removing such thin partitions or ribs or ridges of button material is expeditiously and effectively accomplished.

An understanding of the invention and of a preferred form of machine which we have devised may be had from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. l is a side elevation of the button punching machine.

Fig. 2 is a plan thereof looking down upon the machine in a direction perpendicular to the inclined position of the hopper.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the upper part of the machine.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary central vertical section through the upper part of the machine.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan view of the bottom of the hopper.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary enlarged vertical section through one of the punching units, a large number of which are incorporated in the machine.

Fig. 7 is a vertical section substantially on the plane of the curved and broken line 1-4 of Fig. 5, and

Fig. 8 is a transverse section through a button before the hole clearing operation has been performed.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figures of the drawings.

Included in the supporting frame structure of the machine is a horizontal base l with a vertical post 2 rigidly secured thereto, at the upper end of the post a fixed sleeve 3 is mounted and is inclined to the vertical as shown. Spider arms 4 extend outwardly from the upper end of the sleeve B and are integral with or permanently secured to a circular bottom rim 5 which surrounds the bottom 6 of the hopper. The hopper is completed by a sheet metal wall 1 of the form shown which is open at the front side of. the

) hopper and has its greatest height at the lowermost part thereof.

A shaft 8 is rotatably mounted and extends through a suitable bearing in the sleeve 3, passing through the bottom 6 of the hopper. Above the inclined bottom 6 of the hopper a rotatable head which carries a plurality of punching units is secured. This head includes a circular plate 9 integral with a hub it) through which the shaft passes and to which it is keyed. Underneath the circular plate 9 is a second circular plate ll of substantially the same diameter as the upper plate 9, having a central opening through which the lower portion of the huh I!) extends so that the plate H comes against shoulders on the hub. The plates are permanently secured together by the bolt and spacing sleeve connections indicated at [2, a number of them being disposed around the plates a distance in from their peripheries.

The head is held in place by nuts l3 screwed onto a reduced upper end extension of the shaft 8 as shown in Fig. 4.

In the upper side of the bottom 6 of the hopper a continuous annular groove M is cut a short distance in from the peripheral edges of said bottom. A plurality of punching units are mounted on and carried by and between the plates 9 and H and the bottom 6 of the hopper. The detail of the structure ofeach punching unit is best shown in Fig. 6. Each unit consists of an outer housing having anenlarged lower portion I5 of cylindrical form and a smaller diameter upper portion I6. The plates 9 and H are provided with circular openings, one for each punch, the

parts 15 passing through said openings in the lower plate I l and the upper end of each part I6 extending into a circular opening in the upper plate 9. A coiled compression spring I! surrounds the upper extension 16 of each housing bearing against the under side of plate 9 and against the upper end of the punch housing pore tion l normally holding the housing at its lowermost position, shown in Fig. 6. The diameter of the openings in the plate 9 are slightly larger than the diameters of the buttons which are to be processed by the machine. At the lower end of the housing part l5 is a reduced extension which enters the upper portion ofthe groove l4.

Each of the housings of the punchingunits are interiorly bored from the lower end upwardly, the lower portion being bored with a larger diameter than the upper portion. A punch hav.

.to be processed. The punch members tepass through guide openings in the upper closed, end of the housing. The lower part of the punch has a section 26 of larger'diameter fitting the.

largerlower part of the opening in thehousing. and extending to the bottom of the groove M, being normally held thereagainst by a coiled spring 2| within the housing. Spring 2.! bears upon the upper end of the enlargedpart 26 of the punch. Each of the parts 26 of the punch near its lower end is provided with a continuous annular groove 22 fora purpose which-will hereafter appear.

The shaft 8 when itfis driven as later described, rotates the head over the bottom 6 of the hopper so that the lower ends of the punches ride against the bottom of the'groove.v l4. Two. rollers 23. and 24 are mounted on the bottom of the hopper and extend at'their. upper parts into the'groove M.

(Fig. '7) the roller 24 toa higherlevel than they roller 23. A third roller is carried by the bottom 6 of the housing at an edge'of the groove and at its upper portion it extendsabove the upper side of the bottom 6. The rollers are spaced from the shim 26 is placed is a diagonally positioned finger 21 extending inwardly from aside of the groove and positioned so that the groovesat-Z? on the punches coming thereto will have such cam extendthereinto'if the punches are atlower positions; and if they are notthe action of the inclined cam 27, will serve to pullthem down to,

their lower positions as they pass by such cam The buttons indicatedat 2 8 whicha re to be processed in the machine, when they are placed in:the hopper are formed with partially com pleted holes therethroug h. The central part 0f I r thin ribs or fins. In any case after the button has been molded these ribs, fins or thin partitions left must be removed and it is with the button punching machine which we have devised that such removal i accomplished in a particularly effective and economical manner.

On the post 2, between its ends, horizontal supporting bars 3| carry a rotatable shaft 32 on which a grooved pulley 33 is mounted, driven by a belt 34 from a drive pulley 35 on a power shaft 36 which may be actuated by any suitable source of power. The diameter of the pulley 33 is considerably less than that of the drive pulley 35 whereby the shaft 32 rotates faster than the drive shaft.

A second drive pulley 3'! of relatively small diameter is also secured to the shaft 36 and through a belt 38 drives a larger pulley 39 on a shaft 43, which is equipped with a worm M to engage with a worm or tangent wheel 42 secured to the lower end of theshaft 8,- this being the mechanism used to drive the shaft 8 at slow speed, there being a reduction in speedfrom the shaft 36 to the shaft and a greaterreductionin speed-through the worm gearing fromthe shaft 40 to the shaft 8. A bracket 43 (Fig. 1-) secured to or integral with the fixed sleeve 3' provides the bearings for the shaft 4.6 as shown.

hopper. carries a pressing roller '46 which rides upon the upper side of the plate 9. The roller 46 is positioned so that the peripherally adjacent openings in the plate 9 successively come underneath the roller. 4

A bar 4! inclined to parallel the axis of shaft 8 is located at the front of the machine in front of thehopper and extending below it, and is carried on frame bars 48 and 49- secured to the post 2. Plates 50 'exten'dlaterally from the bar 41, one at its lower end, one at its upper end and one spaced a short distance from the upper end as shown in Fig. 3. A shaft 5t extends through and is mounted for oscillation on the plates 50. At its lower end the shaft is provided with a pinion 52 and between the two upper plates 50 with a second pinion53.

To the lower plate 50 a plate 54 is permanently securedat its lower side and adjacent one edge 'by guide plates 56. One end of the rack bar is connected by a connecting rod 5 l with the shaft 32 off-center therefrom (Fig. 1) tothereby cause the rack 55 to reciprocate when the shaft drivenfrom the pulley 35. The reciprocation is rapid and theshaft 5| is rapidly oscillated back and forth by reason of the engagement of the rack with the pinion 52. c

The upper plates 56 extend toward the hopper beyond the inner edge of bar 47* and on the inwardly projecting portions a shaft 58 15 rotatably mounted provided with a pinion 59 which is in meshing engagement with the upper pin io n*53 on shaft 5| (Fig. 4).

The lower end of the shaft is equipped with a foot member 60* of soft rubber,

the ay id Q hi wa e s l Q ha PR side ofthe plate 9- and underneath which the eripherally adjacent openings in such plate 9 suc-' cessively pass when the shaft 8 is rotated. The shaft 58 may be adjusted by the adjusting screw mechanism shown at 6|, the detail of which need not be entered into.

A curved bar 62 is located within the hopper wall 1 and secured thereto in close adjacency with and above the edges of the plate 9, said bar extending around the wall of the hopper from one edgeto the other of its open side continuously except for an opening at one side of the hopper where the finished buttons are ejected as will hereafter appear. A second curved bar 63 is spaced from one end portion of the first bar 62 with a plate 64 over said bars connecting them together and holding the bar 63 out of engagement with the plate 9. Said bar 63 has one end located adjacent the pressing roller 46 (Fig. 2) and extends away therefrom. A deflecting finger 65 of metal is attached to the side of the bar 63 adjacent bar 62 and extends across the passage between them and thence outwardly through an opening in the wall of the hopper (Fig. 1), the bar 62 being cut away at this point as previously mentioned. The peripherally adjacent openings in the plate 9 move at the under side of the passage between the bar 63 and the adjacent portions of the bar 62 (Fig. 2).

Operation A quantity of buttons 28 having the thin partitions or fins 30 across the openings therethrough are placed in the hopper and by gravity will take a position, as in Fig. 4, at the lowermost part of the hopper, lying above the plate 9 and over the bar 62. When the machine is in operation the rotation of the head which includes plate 9 and the punching units moves such plate 9 under the quantity of buttons. During such movement buttons will successively be received in the upper ends of the openings located adjacent the periphery of plate 9 and rest upon the upper ends of the punch housing upper portions l6. It is not important that every opening be filled every time as the operation of a punching unit may take place without detriment to the machine whether or not a button is in place to have the thin partitions or fins removed.

The buttons thus carried, in the openings in the plate 9, are brought first underneath the foot member 60 on the shaft 58,,which shaft is rapidly oscillating. At the same time the punching unit below a button which is brought underneath the foot 60 rides at its lower end over the roller 23, thereby slightly elevating the punch consisting of the parts l8 and 2B and pushing the punch members l9 a short distance above the upper end of the housing part IE or so that they may enter the lower recesses 29 in the button. If the button should be positioned so as to properly receive the punch members I9, it will not be elevated so as to come against the under side of the soft rubber foot 60. But if, as usually occurs, the punch members 19 do not enter such under recesses 29, the button is slightly elevated by members l9 and brought against the under side of the foot member 60, which oscillating rapidly and frictionally engaging the upper side of the button, turns the button until said under recess and the upper ends of the punch recesses l9 are in conjunction, whereupon the punch members will enter said under recesses 29 and be ready for the next operation which takes place upon the button.

The punch having been elevated by the roller 23 is maintained at such slightly elevated position when it leaves the roller 23 by riding upon the shim at 26 until the roller 24 is reached maintaining the punch members in place in the under recesses 29. The roller 24 is directly underneath the pressing roller 46. The button comes underneath the pressing roller 46 and is held against upward movement While the punch riding over the roller 24 is pushed farther upward, forcing the punch members [9 against the thin partitions or fins 30, cutting them loose and therefore clearing the holes through the buttons. As soon as this operation has been performed and the punch has passed the roller 24 the spring at 2| will normally move the punch back to its lowermost position as shown in Fig. 6. But if for any reason it should stick and not return, the inclined cam finger 21 entering the groove at 22 and engaging against the under side of the groove will pull the punch down to its lowermost position.

The completed button remains in the recess provided by the opening in the plate 9 over the upper end of the punch housing until the roller 25 is reached. Roller 25 being located immediately alongside of the groove [4 elevates the housings of the punches as they successively come to .it, when the lower end of the larger portion [5 of a housing rides over such roller, compressing spring I! and lifting the housing to eject the finished and completed button from the opening in the plate 9 in which it has been received. Simultaneously with this lifting and ejecting the button comes to the outwardly extending finger or plate 65 and is swept outwardly through the side of the hopper.

It is to be understood that the description with respect to the operation of one of the punching units is a description of the operation of all of them, and that the clearing and punching out of the thin ribs or partitions in the holes through the buttons occurs on the buttons one after the other in succession as the several punches with buttons above them come to and are acted upon by the rollers 23, 24 and 25. The

rotative movement of the head at the upper end of shaft 8 is relatively slow but with the machine the processing of a very large quantity of the buttons to remove the thin ribs, fins or partitions is effectively and economically attained.

The construction is novel and useful and has been in practical use with a very successful attainment of the results desired.

The invention is defined in the appended claims and is to be considered comprehensive of all forms of structure coming within their'scope.

We claim:

1. In a machine of the class described, a hopper having a bottom, a shaft extending through said bottom, a rotatable head including an upper circular plate fixed to the shaft within the hopper, said plate having a plurality of button receiving openings, a punch housing mounted on and movable with the head under each opening and normally extending partially thereinto, a punch in each housing having punch members one for each opening in a bottom extending through the upper end of the housing, means for successively moving the punches upwardly to push the punch members through said button holes, means for returning the punches to lower position after upward movement thereof, and means for elevating the housing to eject the buttons from the opening in which located.

v 2. In a machine ofrthe class described, a hope per having a. bottom for containing; a. plurality of buttons, said buttons having a plurality; of: openings therethrough'with ,thin partitions or annular fins across andbetween the ends of the openings, a shaft extending-through the, bottom of the hopper, a head securedv within thehopper including two. spaced apartcircular plates, said head being fixed to. and rotatable with the. shaft, the upper plate having .a .plurality of peripherally adjacent openings each adapted toreceive a button, a punch housing resting upon the bottom of the hopper extending through the lower plate and at its .upper end extendingslightly into an opening in the upper plate, one of said punch housings .being provided: for each button receiving opening in the upper plate, a vertically movable, punch mounted; .within': each housing, a plurality of punch: membersnat. the upper end of each. punch topasstherethrough, one for each of theopeningsto beclearedin the buttons and spring means; normally holding the punch housings .in lower position, other spring means holding the punches-.ini lower po-' sition, spaced rollers carried abywthe bottom of the hopper over which the punches are passed in succession, the second'of said spaced. rollers being at a higher elevation than the firstone, a shim between 'the rollers having, its-upper surface in substantially the plane of the uppermostpoint of the first rollerwher'ebythe-punchesand punch members thereon are. first elevateda short distance. and on. reaching the {second roller are elevated a greater. distance, and arlthird roller carried by the-bottom of'the hopper over which the lower end of the punch housingssuccessively pass after leavingthelsecond of the first mentioned rollers to successively elevate the punch housings and eject the buttonsfrom the openings inthe upper plate of. saidhead.

3. A, construction. containing the elements in combination defined in. claim 2, combined with.

a pressing roller mounted on and extending into thehopper over-the upper side of the head and located over the second of said. first mentioned rollers.

4.. A construction. containingthe elements. in'

combination defined. in. claim 2, 'corhbinedwith a. shaft located oyer and: extending: away from the upper plateziof'said rotatable head, a foot member at the. lower. end of. saidshaft under pendicular to the-bottom of'the hopper extending therethrough, means to. drive the shaft at relatively low speed, a head connected tothe upper'end' ofa the shaft within'the hopper having two spaced apart connected circular .plates each 'lower ends riding upon'the bummer. the hopper,-

spring meansnormally holding the punchhousings in lower position, aipunch mounted for.

longitudinal movement Within each-punchhous ing and. extending therebelow said bottom of the hopper; having an annular groove therein.

into which the lower ends of the punches extend and against the bottom of which the lower ends of the punches normally bear, a plurality of punch members. secured to the upper end of each punch extending through associated punch housing spring means for normally holding, the punches in lowermost position, spaced rollers carried by' the bottom of the hopper and extending into saidv groovetherein over which the lower ends of the punches successively pass, the. first of said rollers extending a less distance into. the groove, than the. second roller, a flat shim in the bottom of the groove between the rollers-having; its upper surface in. substantially the same plane of the uppermost part of the first roller, and a third roller mounted on the ibottom of. the hopper at a side of the groove over which the lower ends of the punch housings successively pass after leaving the two rollers. first mentioned, as specified.

6. A construction containing the elements in combination; defined in claim 5, combined with a shaft mounted to rotate about an axis parallel to the axis of the shaft on which the head is mounted and disposed so that the openings in the upper plate of said head successively pass underneath the lower end of said shaft, a foot member. of relatively soft friction material secured to the lower end of said shaft, and means for'rapidly oscillating said shaft about its axis,

' as andfor the purposes specified.

.Z. In a machine of the class described, a hopper. for, containing a. plurality of buttons each of which. has a plurality of openings therethrough,

across which openings substantially midway between opposite ends thereof are positioned thin fins, or partitions integral with the buttons, a rotatable head. mounted in the hopper having button receiving openings, each adapted to receivea single button when moving underneath aduantity of buttons, meansfor slowly rotating the head. over the bottom of the hopper, punches carried'by. thehead, one for each button receiving opening, each punch having a plurality Q punch;membersone for each opening through a button, means for elevating the punches a short distance, means. for oscillating the buttons about their centers to bring the. openings in the button in conjunctionwith said punch members, means for further. elevating the punches one afteranother at'a; predetermined position of the head in itsrotative movement,,means engaging against the upper. sides. of the buttons to hold them against: elevation upon said additional movement of-thepunches, whereby said punch members clear 'theyholes; of; said fins. or partitions, and means for ejecting, the buttons from said button receiving-holes in thehead after the holes-in the buttons have been. cleared, as specified.

8. A.machine including a hopper inwhich a plurality-of buttonsmay be placed, said buttons having. openings. therethrough across which be tween their ends thin fins or partitions integral WithF-the buttons are positioned, means for selectively .taking buttons in succession froma massof buttons inthe hopper and moving them awayv from said mass, punches having punch members onefor' each holein each of the buttons, means for moving the punches with reference to thebuttons to bring said punchmembers. against the under. sides of the buttons, means for shifting. the buttons to bring the openings therein in conjunction with the punch members, and means for further moving the punches combined with means for holdingthe buttons means for taking the buttons singly in succession away from the mass of the buttons, punches one for each of the buttons selectively removed having punch members equal in number to the number of holes in a button, means for locating the buttons with respect to the punches so that the punch members enter said holes, means for moving the punches combined with means for holding the buttons against movement away from the punch member to clear them of said fins or partitions, and means for thereafter ejecting the buttons from the hopper.

LESLIE T. FOSTER.

MAX W. BECK. 

